Sign up for our mailing list

News

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Anti To Release Album From The Duke & The King On August 2nd

Anti- Records is thrilled to be releasing an album by the critically heralded soul-folk-glam ensemble The Duke & The King. Formed in New York by acclaimed musician-writer Simone Felice, previously a key songwriter and founding member of celebrated country rock outfit The Felice Brothers, The Duke & The King are a potent acoustic-vocal group created by Felice and Robert Bird Burke featuring Simi Stone and Nowell " The Deacon" Haskins.

Named after the traveling Shakespearean troupe in Mark Twain's classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Duke & The King create a rollicking undeniably soulful sound in the vein of classic songwriters from James Taylor to Rolling Thunder Review, Fleetwood Mac and Sly & the Family Stone while adding a distinctly personal touch with Felice's affecting narratives. It is a quality which inspired the BBC to compare his songwriting to Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.

The band's upcoming self-titled Anti-Records release will hit stores August 2nd and is a collection of songs culled from the group's two previous English albums, not yet available in the US. Both records have received unanimously enthusiastic reviews from the British press.

Four out of four stars... The Duke & The King journey to Memphis 1966, Woodstock 1969, California 1971, and Muscle Shores 1976 to find ingredients for their stoned-rock-soul-folk picnic... Nothing shackles Felice's cast of chancers and dislocated hearts in which ladies have "sad machine gun eyes," (the bouncy FM gold nugget "Shaky") and "love is a coke dealer's daughter" (the blissed out "You And I") - Mojo

"Four stars - One of the best new bands in America... Heading for the sweet spot between '70s FM radio and the boom years of Topanga Canyon... The kind of delicate lullabies James Taylor might have saved for Sweet Baby James ...a dead ringer for Stephen Stills in his CSN prime." - Uncut

Nick Cave and My Morning Jacket are the most obvious touchstones, but Dylan and Leonard Cohen are also brought to mind, such is the depth of emotion wrought by Felice and Burke's careful approach... An understated gem. - BBC

"These are songs of memory and regret, of reminiscence and desire, songs that reflect on love and childhood and Americaness and, more than anything, on time passing...each song somehow sounds like a classic, each live performance suggesting we are in the presence of a rare, fiery brilliance." - Guardian

Five out of five stars - album of the year. Songs so perfectly formed they may have been around forever... Like some lost classic from the Seventies, Simone Felice and songwriting partner Robert Burke blend Americana, soul and psychedelia with classic singer-songwriting... Simone has the poetic gifts and fearless aesthetic to rank among the all-time greats, from Cohen to Cave. - Daily Telegraph

"A wondrous album. Yes, a sense of loss does hang heavily over these songs -- mainly a sense of lost innocence and the desire to return to simpler times ("If we can only get to Union Street/Then everything will be all right"). But you may be surprised to discover that the music is sweet, soft and, for the most part, hopeful. At times, calls to mind James Taylor or Stephen Stills... The sheer quality of the writing is epitomized by the seductive blue-eyed soul." - Sunday Times

Five out of five stars - Mail on Sunday

Track Listing For The Duke & The King:

1. If You Ever Get Famous - 3:48
2. Shaky - 4:25
3. The Morning I Get To Hell - 3:27
4. No Easy Way Out - 3:05
5. Union Street- 4:52
6. Hudson River - 2:44
7. You And I - 3:10
8. Shine On You - 3:34
9. Gloria - 2:58
10. Have You Seen It? - 3:18
11. One More American Song - 5:19
12. Don't Take That Plane Tonight - 6:33